YANG FUDONG
June 6 – September 28, 2008
Yang Fudong (Beijing, 1971) is one of the most highly regarded Chinese artists of the present day. The XI Kassel Documenta (2002) was his gateway to international recognition, as seen in his many exhibitions in Europe, the United States and Asia (Kunsthalle Wien, 2005; Castello di Rivoli – Museo D´Arte Contemporanea, 2005; and the Stedelijk Museum, 2006), as well as in the Venice Biennali of 2003 and 2007, and in the Shanghai Biennial of 2004. He currently lives in Shanghai.
The use of film and video in his works is based on the formal, stylistic and expressive opportunities afforded by these media in a constantly changing country, where, in the great cities, the culture of the past is appearing and being reshaped in the present. While not forgetting his background as a painter, Yang recreates in his videos the pictorial processes narrated through a new visual language. Experimentation with rhythm and video image speed are for him the most attractive aspects of this medium, in which he manages to fuse what is his own with what is universal. Making use of very localised elements, he builds his narrative discourse using certain constant elements, such as the beauty of the image, the evocation of silence, the psychological treatment of themes and philosophical reflections on mankind’s existence. There is in his work a deep concern over the situation of the artist and the intellectual and over their relation with their external environment and its interior reflection – the individual’s identity seen outside a cultural system that has marginalised him and in which he must redefine his position.
The use of film and video in his works is based on the formal, stylistic and expressive opportunities afforded by these media in a constantly changing country, where, in the great cities, the culture of the past is appearing and being reshaped in the present. While not forgetting his background as a painter, Yang recreates in his videos the pictorial processes narrated through a new visual language. Experimentation with rhythm and video image speed are for him the most attractive aspects of this medium, in which he manages to fuse what is his own with what is universal. Making use of very localised elements, he builds his narrative discourse using certain constant elements, such as the beauty of the image, the evocation of silence, the psychological treatment of themes and philosophical reflections on mankind’s existence. There is in his work a deep concern over the situation of the artist and the intellectual and over their relation with their external environment and its interior reflection – the individual’s identity seen outside a cultural system that has marginalised him and in which he must redefine his position.
The exhibition assembles a selection of Yang’s videographic work, carefully made by the organizer, Isabel Cervera, teacher of the History of Oriental Art in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. All of the works are being seen for the first time in this country, with the exception of Liu Lan, which was shown in Casa Asia, as part of a collective exhibition of Chinese video art (Off Loop, 2004, Barcelona)
Sponsored by The Harriet and Esteban Vicente Foundation.